Students clash with local residents

Student life, with its late nights, power hours, donut runs and activities, has collided with suburbia south of campus and people are not happy.

     According to Richard Kight, planning administrator of the planning and development department for the City of Westerville, neighbors have contacted members of city council demanding action.

     They want to change city code by amending the city’s definition of household. 

     According to Kight, the area in dispute is zoned as a single-family residential area.  The city defines one household as individuals related by blood, adoption or marriage, or a maximum of five unrelated persons.

     Residents want to limit the number of unrelated persons in one household to just two. 

     “That’s not fair,” Shaina Glinski, sophomore sociology major, said. “That would make renting too expensive for students.”

     “I feel that they shouldn’t be complaining because they chose to live in an area near a college and a fraternity that has been around for over 100 years,” Kaylyn Armstrong, junior early childhood education major, said.

     The city administrators are looking into the residents’ demand but have not made a decision. “We want to be responsive to neighbor’s concerns and honor the college at the same time,” Kight said.

     Otterbein, however, is drafting policy that will decrease the amount of off-campus residents.

     Beginning next school year, freshmen, sophomores and juniors will be required to live on campus. 

     “We have not finalized all plans yet, but information will be shared with students over the next few months about the change,” Tracy Benner, director of residence life, said.

     For the 2009 school year, 1,195 students are living on campus, leaving 183 vacancies. Otterbein will “obviously have more than 183 juniors,” but Benner anticipates using a lottery system to allow select juniors to be exempt from the policy.  

     The policy will be enforced, but residence life is still “looking into” their options.

     Residents neighboring Plum Street’s Pi Beta Sigma fraternity house have had issues. 

     “The gentleman next door was trying to sell his house and often complained about the condition of our yard, among other things,” Josh Mahaffey, president of Pi Beta Sigma, said. 

     “I’m not sure exactly what every neighbor’s expectations are…I do feel for the homeowners on this,” Mahaffey said. “Their living expectations shouldn’t be lowered just because they live near a campus. I can speak for Pi Sig, and we have no problem with keeping ‘college-age hours’ and co-existing with neighbors who don’t.” Other Plum Street residents don’t mind students living in their neighborhood.

     “Every Otterbein student we’ve encountered is wonderful,” Mary Boland of 104 W. Plum St. said. “The young men in that fraternity [Pi Sig] are...just lovely. It’s absolutely delightful to live here.”

     “There are way too many landlords who would lose all of that income,” Mahaffey said. “We need to fix renter problems, not get rid of renters.” 

     According to Robert Gatti, vice president of student affairs, the college has had issues between residents and students renting off campus before. “It tends to be a dam with a leak in it,” he said. “Plug a hole here and it leaks somewhere else. I think the tolerance of noise at 18 is different than at 50, and that’s what it comes down to.” 

      Otterbein has addressed resident concern on Lincoln and Vine Streets by implementing the Good Neighbor Program, an Otterbein-sponsored program that focuses on different areas each year by arranging meetings for residents, students and officials to talk about neighborly manners and expectations. 

     The college is paying for a barbeque next week to bring students, residents and officials together to discuss manners and expectations on the lawn of Pi Beta Sigma fraternity. t&c